Online streaming overtakes digital delivery as Blockbuster shuts shop

WASHINGTON - Famed movie rental warehouse Blockbuster is filing for bankruptcy, causing a trend shift in movie rental business.

“The landscape has completely changed. There’s a lot more competition and a whole generation of people who are very, very comfortable without packaged media,” ABC News quoted Jim Willcox of Consumer Reports as saying.

“It used to be a pretty bad experience to stream movies when people had dial-up modems, but the expansion of broadband connection in homes has enabled a lot of services,” Willcox said.

Plus, many of these devices cost less than 200 dollars.

Netflix: lets users stream videos on their computers as well at no additional cost.

Vudu: on-demand movie service that you can use if you have a Blu-Ray player or high definition television. It’s built into products produced by LG, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, and Vizio. Willcox said that of all the services, this one produces the best picture.

Apple TV: the set-top box that connects to a high-definition television and can show rented movies and TV shows. It can also stream YouTube clips and allow you to look at photos on Flickr.

Amazon Video On Demand: lets you watch an episode instantly for a fee, usually ranging from 99 cents to 3.99 dollars.

Redbox: lets people rent a movie at the grocery store. Launched in 2004, there are 23,000 locations that let you rent a movie for a dollar a night.

Boxee: lets you type in a movie or TV show that you want to see and Boxee finds it online from a variety of places and streams it.

Wii: Wii and other videogame systems let you stream movies through them as well. Wii allows you to stream Netflix videos. (ANI)